Holding back or holding down? HB269 and literacy in Louisiana
On February 28, 2022, Louisiana State Representative Richard Nelson filed House Bill 269. The bill would hold back students with reading deficiencies (measuring at the lowest achievement level on a literacy assessment) from being promoted to fourth grade. There are exceptions to this rule: ESL students who have had fewer than two years of language instruction, students who have received intensive reading instruction for two or more years but still demonstrate a reading deficiency, and students who have demonstrated acceptable reading proficiency on an alternative reading assessment approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. If a student is retained, the school must provide intensive services, progress monitoring, at least 90 minutes of daily, scientifically researched reading instruction, and more.
The bill passed the Louisiana House and died in the Senate in June 2022, but Rep. Nelson is looking to reintroduce the bill next session and thinks that it stands a good chance. It was supported by both Republicans and Democrats in the House.
HB269 is based on a Mississippi bill from a couple of years ago. Due to a wider literacy education effort, Mississippi rose from 49th to 29th in the country on literacy. There is, however, disagreement as to how much the fourth-grade promotion bill influenced literacy outcomes.
Supporters say that HB269 is necessary because, after third grade, students do not learn to read; they read to learn, which makes it difficult if not impossible to learn to read after third grade. Preventing kids with a reading deficiency from being promoted to fourth grade is an economically effective way to improve literacy outcomes, especially when combined with intensive, small-group reading instruction.
All the same, this bill is not a panacea. According to the Education Trust, students who are held back “experience negative academic, social, and emotional outcomes over time,” “achieve at the same or worse levels than students who are not retained,” and are “more likely to be bullied or to engage in bullying due to having unsupported learning or behavior challenges or being a different age than students in their grade.” Being held back is only effective if students receive additional support (such as the 90 minutes of required reading instruction), but this is reliant on the resources of chronically underfunded school districts.
According to the NIH, “explicit training in dynamic sensory sensitivity, combined with phonological, orthographic, and comprehension skill teaching, are likely to be the most effective method for improving literacy skills.” Nelson’s bill addresses some of these strategies, like phonics, but does not address others, like training in dynamic sensory sensitivity. People with dyslexia are less sensitive to dynamic (rapidly-changing or rapidly-presented) stimuli, which makes it harder for them to decode words. This sensitivity needs to be focused on directly.
Overall, HB269 is a positive first step toward addressing Louisiana’s literacy crisis by imitating one of Mississppi’s proven strategies. There is more work to be done, but it is important to start somewhere.